Out of all the sparkly accessories you can collect in World of Warcraft the mount is probably the one that most players like to collect and show off. Developers caught on to the popularity of mount collections, and by the time the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was released, there were a wide array of unique mounts for the player to collect and enjoy.
The new continent in WotLK, Northrend, had a cold-weather aesthetic, some of the rare mounts in this expansion are Arctic and Ice Age animals. This is also when the proto-drake mounts were introduced as a way to one-up the nether drakes of Outland, and they're available as drops, rewards for killing world bosses, or given in completion of certain achievements. The upcoming mounts include a few from the vintage days along with newer ones that players can get for Achievements or as PVP rewards.
Updated on September 7, 2022, by Kristy Ambrose: It might be that nostalgia moves on a wheel as opposed to a linear timeline. The classic version of World of Warcraft has been running parallel with the Retail version for a few years now and The Burning Crusade expansion was released to considerable fanfare in 2021. Players enjoying the vintage experience of Classic: WoW are already noticing a lot of changes connected to WotLK pre-patch action and that includes prep for the mounts, both old and new, and other details like new training methods.
Before having the ability to fly in Northrend, players have to train for Cold Weather Flying. This skill is available to both factions but characters have to be level 77 and already be trained in Expert Riding. The price of the training book is slightly restrictive at 1000g and players can buy it as early as level 75. Players are not required to train for flying mounts in Outland before getting Cold Weather Flying for Northrend.
13 White Polar Bear Mount
Storm Peaks is a lonely zone without a lot of NPCs or quests, but it has some interesting geography, and the daily quests are worth doing. After completing them, players are awarded a sack of Hyldnir Spoils, and once in a while, they contain this rare mount.
Collector or not, the White Polar Bear is one of the mounts that's easy to obtain just through doing dailies, with no camping or tagging required. Legend has it that there's also a Brown Polar Bear in the game, but that one is so rare it is impossible to say where it drops or how to get it.
12 Grand Ice Mammoth
This isn't a mount that's hard to find, but it has to be earned through a Reputation grind and a big stack of gold coins, so it's still fairly rare. Some of the most sought-after mounts in The Wrath of the Lich King were attainable through certain factions and this is one of the most popular.
The Storm Peaks, a relatively small and central location in Northrend, looks empty at first but tenacious players can find the Sons of Holdir faction and their quartermaster, Lillehoff. Not only does the player have to grind to Exalted with this faction but there's also a question chain to complete, so even all that grinding and gold isn't enough.
11 Azure Drake
The Eye of Eternity has a 10-player raid that consists of killing one boss, the dragon Malygos. This is a fairly challenging fight that takes a few phases, similar to the Onyxia battle of Classic WoW.
Malygos drops two rare mounts, the Blue Drake and the Azure Drake, along with an impressive loot table that has something for every class. The Azure Drake has a slightly lower drop rate at 3%, with the Blue Drake at a slightly better ratio of 4%.
10 Grand Black War Mammoth
Not to be confused with the War Mammoth that's a PVP reward, the Grand Black War Mammoth is the rare drop from Archavon the Stone Watcher, a boss within the battleground of Lake Wintergrasp. He's only accessible when your faction controls the battleground, which is just one hurdle to jump if you hope to get this mount.
Archavon has both a 10 and 25-player mode and both drop Tier 7 armor pieces. However, only the loot table for the larger group contains the mount, and players have the roll against each other to get it.
9 Time-Lost Proto-Drake
As far as rare world drops go, this might be one of the most difficult mounts in the game to acquire. Time-Lost Proto-Drake drops from a world boss, players have camped for years waiting for this mount to fly past them.
There are guides and posts galore on the internet from numerous players describing their own individual quests to acquire this coveted mount, which is a must for any collector. That hasn't changed very much since 2008 when the WotLK first dropped.
8 Black War Bear
One of the most difficult to obtain, and therefore the rarest of the mounts that were added in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The Black War Bear is a ground mount that required players to complete a PvP achievement that had nothing to do with Northrend or the Lich King.
Raids on other cities will happen in WoW occasionally, especially on PvP servers, but it's fairly difficult for a player to take part in a raid that not only attacks one of the opposing factions' capital cities but also kills the faction's ruler. There are four on each side, all of them are in Old Azeroth, and very heavily guarded.
7 Violet Proto-Drake
Not all rare mounts are drops from dungeon bosses or only obtainable from certain world bosses. Some are given in recognition of certain achievements.
In World of Warcraft, there's an official list of Achievements that players can work towards, and one of the most difficult is called, "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been." It's connected to the achievements of the official WoW holidays, such as Children's Day and the Lunar Festival, and there are about 70 of them in all. This rare mount is not the only reason many players take on this challenge, as it also comes with different titles that the user's character can show off in front of their nameplate.
6 Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher
The Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher is another mount that is awarded for an achievement, but this one is all about raiding. "The Glory of the Icecrown Raider" consists of 16 different achievements that people can complete in the various 10-player raids in WotLK.
Some of them are simple, just killing all of the bosses in the raid, for example, but others are much more difficult. For example, one of the achievements of the Icecrown Raid is "The Orb Whisperer," which consists of defeating the Blood Council without anyone in the party taking more than 23,000 spell damage.
5 Crimson Deathcharger
This mount doesn't fly, which makes no sense for a beast that's housed in Icecrown Citadel which is only accessible via flight. However, this is an account-wide mount and it's rideable at lower levels, which means that all of a player's 'toons can use it. It's fast, too, with a speed boost of 100%.
People can only obtain this mount after killing Arthas Menethil, the boss at the end of this raid. Players also have to be in possession of Shadowmourne, a legendary weapon that can only be carried by a Warrior, a Paladin, or a Death Knight. They also need to have a Friendly reputation with the Ashen Verdict faction to get the quest Mograine's Reunion, which rewards this mount.
4 Big Blizzard Bear
This mount is only available in the Retail version of WoW, at least so far, but that could change in the future if more of them appear. This might be one of the rarest mounts in the whole game, available only via a promotional code given to attendees of Blizzcon 2008, the year when the original expansion was released.
According to internet lore, many of the people who were rewarded these codes anticipated how valuable they would be and never redeemed them, opting instead to sell them. The mount looks like a polar bear but extras include a murlock hood-ornament who holds a BlizzCon flag.
3 Mimiron's Head
Sure, it's weird, but it's nice to have something different. Not only is Mimiron one of the few mechanical mounts in the game that isn't constructed by an engineer, but it's also a reference to Norse mythology, along with most things in Northrend.
This is another mount that drops from a raid boss, and this is none other than Yogg-Saron, one of the most powerful of the Old Gods. Even if someone manages to descend into the depths of Ulduar and succeeds in defeating Yogg-Saron, there's only a 1% chance that he'll drop Mimiron's Head.
2 Green Proto-Drake
Sholazar Basin is a unique place in Northrend, and that's where players can find Geen, the Quartermaster of the Oracles. This faction stands in opposition to the Frenzyheart tribe, so if someone wants this mount, they have to align themselves with the Oracles.
Once the player is friends with the correct faction, they have to grind their way up to Revered reputation to buy a Mysterious Egg from Quartermaster Geen. This egg takes three days to hatch and the chance that it drops a Green Proto-Drake is fairly low and totally random.
1 Invincible
This mount was added to World of Warcraft in a patch that preceded the Cataclysm expansion. It's similar to the Crimson Deathcharger in the sense that it's also connected to the last boss of Icecrown Citadel, Arthas Menethil. In this case, however, Invincible is the personal mount of the Lich King himself.
Acquiring the mount also means the player completes a Feat of Strength from the Achievements list. The mount looks different depending on someone's level and location, and the mount is account-wide so all characters can use it.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is available on PC.